Conventional data communication systems have been applied to accomplish object identification using the medium of radio broadcast. Such radio frequency identification (RFID) systems find application in the fields of materials handling, inventory control, and generally in the field of tracking personnel, objects, and animals. In an exemplary arrangement, such a system may include an interrogator and several thousand transceivers, each transceiver being packaged as a disposable label or tag and placed on an object, animal, or person to be tracked. Each transceiver is manufactured using integrated circuit technology, programmed with a unique identifier, and assembled with a printed circuit antenna to form a flat assembly for incorporation into the label or tag. Typically, the interrogator has a fixed location, while transceivers are moved from time to time in and out of the communication field of the interrogator. It is highly desirable to accurately and quickly identify transceivers from a population of transceivers which may number in the billions. At the same time, it is highly desirable to reduce the cost of each transceiver to an absolute minimum.
Accurate and reliable detection of transceivers is made difficult by a number of factors including, for example, (a) transceivers have a limited amount of power available to operate when required to respond with a radio transmission; (b) the orientation of the transceiver antenna may be unsuitable for absorbing sufficient power from the signal transmitted by the interrogator; (c) the orientation of the antenna of the transceiver may be unsuitable for providing a transmitted signal sufficient for accurate reception by the interrogator; (d) cooperation of a transceiver with the interrogator may require sophisticated logic in the transceiver to accurately perform the transceiver's portion of a communication protocol used to obtain an open communication channel between the interrogator and a single transceiver; and (e) transceivers transmitting simultaneously may cause a so-called collision.
There remains a need for a communication system suited for coordinating the use of a common medium among potentially billions of transceivers for interrogation or control activities to be accomplished in a limited time. In addition, there remains a need in some applications to minimize the circuitry, firmware, and software complexity required at each transceiver, to extend the operating range of communication, and to support larger numbers of individual identification numbers perhaps at the expense of complexity at the interrogator. Without these improvements, the size and cost per transceiver cannot be reduced to permit new and improved communication systems that employ inexpensive disposable transceivers such as identification tags, baggage tags, inventory labels, and the like.